Collaborative Art

A Collaborative Art project is a great event, full of fun, learning, and therapeutic benefits. It is ideal for team building, developing respect for the decisions of others, and developing an accepting attitude for contribution from others. It is a great project for family members to work on together, for children, and adults, whether it be just for fun or to learn to work better with others, and improve group dynamics. If you are an event organizer you can call me to set up a Collaborative Art Seminar for your organization or for an event.

You Can Participate (Not Currently)

Currently I am in the beginning stages of organizing a number of Louisville community collaborative art projects. Children, teens, and adults, from various organizations, religious, and correctional institutions will be participating in collaborative art projects which promote principles of teamwork such as respect for the decisions of others, creativity in planning, flexibility in adapting to new scenarios, and detachment from past and future ideas as new ones are made. At the end of the project there will be an exhibit of all the works around Louisville. Inviting the guests from all participating organizations and donating the proceeds from any potential sales back to the community organization which produced it. Contact me if you would like to help run, organize and be a part of this initiative.

How it started

In 2010 I first had the idea to make collaborative artwork. The principles of the idea were that by working on a piece together with other people, would encourage the participants to develop an attitude of acceptance, flexibility, greater creativity and non-attachment. In this way the artist would gain valuable experience applying time-honored spiritual principles in practice. My first collaborative project was set up in the basement of my parent's home and anyone who would come to visit would be offered to contribute to the piece. At first almost everyone would say something like "I don't know what to draw", "I am not good, I can't draw", or "I'll ruin your picture". I explained to them that in this project the only rule was that everything was allowed. This meant that if you wanted to draw a big black line across the entire page, it was acceptable to do and everyone would have to honor that decision and adjust to it, incorporating the new element in with whatever idea you had going before. Many people ended up participating and some even came back for days to work on the piece. Some would draw just one object while others would contribute all over. The experiment became a huge success and my brother ended up hanging it on his wall at his University and later in his apartment for all to see and discuss.

Next project was in the living room, and again many friends and visitors came to contribute. We found that there were several challenges. One challenge was deciding when the piece was complete and who would be in charge of finalizing the work. Finally, who would be the owner of it. The natural answer was that whoever started it, would finish it and keep it. But a few weeks later I participated in a collaborative piece again. This time the participants together agreed when the piece was finished and no single participant was the final owner. The art was given as a gift. And here I realized that this was the best way to appropriate collaborative art. It can be a project for a fundraiser, or community event, or gift. Furthermore it became clear that collaborative art could play a positive role in team building, bonding, as well as have therapeutic benefits.

Subsequent Collaborative Art Projects

This piece was worked on over a period of a couple of weeks by many visitors at my in-house studio.

Other collaborative artwork which was worked on for approximately 1 hour. My latest collaborative art event was with a group of senior citizens in Louisville, KY.